Russia Win World Cup Bids - 2018 (football, league, FIFA, group)
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In keeping with the stated plans of Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, to take the game’s biggest event to all parts of the globe, Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup.
We go to new lands,” Blatter told Reuters in Zurich, where Thursday’s votes were held. “Never has the World Cup been in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world has been waiting for a long time. So I’m a happy president when we talk about the development of football.”
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, did not travel to Zurich, obliquely accusing England of trying to undermine the voting process. This was an apparent reference to news media reports emanating from London that accused some FIFA officials of being willing to sell their votes.
After Russia won the 2018 World Cup, though, Putin said he would travel to Zurich to thank FIFA for providing a “sign of trust” for his country.
Russia, which will also host the 2014 Winter Olympics, views the World Cup as a chance to help the country continue to emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Concerns about a lack of infrastructure and travel in the far-flung country were apparently ameliorated in the bidding process.
Russia proposes to host the tournament in 13 cities grouped in four clusters. And Putin has said that visitors will not need travel visas. Match tickets will apparently serve as visas, as they did when the 2008 Champions League final was held in Moscow.
“We can all promise, you will never regret it,” Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s deputy prime minister, said in Zurich. “Let us make history together.”
Thank God Russia got 2018! Though I'm kinda peed-off with the Qatar 2022 one (was rooting for Australia to get that one)!
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Though I'm kinda peed-off with the Qatar 2022 one (was rooting for Australia to get that one)! 
